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The great rate freakout of June 2013 looks awfully panicky in the rearview mirror, with fixed mortgages now far cheaper than they were back then. It's been a full year since the Federal Reserve unnerved home lenders and buyers by announcing it would choke back a stimulus program that had sent long-term borrowing costs to record lows. The average 30-year mortgage rate leaped from 3.93% to 4.46% that week, according to Freddie Mac's survey -- the biggest weekly jump since 1987. But instead of rising as feared, mortgage rates have drifted lower over the year. Freddie Mac said Thursday that lenders were offering 30-year loans to solid borrowers at an average of 4.14%, down from...

Related "Securities" Articles

The great rate freakout of June 2013 looks awfully panicky in the rearview mirror, with fixed mortgages now far cheaper than they were back then.
It's been a full year since the Federal Reserve unnerved home lenders and buyers by announcing it would...

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday accused Wedbush Securities Inc., a Los Angeles investment firm, of illegally allowing thousands of anonymous overseas traders to make billions of dollars' worth of secret trades.
The civil lawsuit...

Two former Qualcomm Inc. sales directors were charged with insider trading, allegedly making $230,000 in profit from trades in Atheros Communications Inc. when Qualcomm bought the company in 2011.
Derek Cohen and Robert Herman, both 52, were charged with...

A San Francisco man pleaded guilty to a single count of securities fraud Monday related to the 2009 acquisition of Marvel Entertainment by Walt Disney Co, federal authorities said.
The announcement by the U.S. attorney's office for the Central...

Activist investor Bill Ackman is partnering with Valeant Pharmaceuticals in an attempt to buy Orange County pharmaceutical company Allergan Inc., which sells the popular wrinkle treatment Botox.
Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management said in a...

The once highflying hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors was sentenced on criminal fraud charges Thursday under a $1.8-billion deal that prosecutors say included the largest criminal fine ever imposed in an insider-trading case.U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor...

Federal agents are investigating whether high-frequency trading firms break U.S. laws by acting on nonpublic information to gain an edge over competitors.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's inquiry stems from a multiyear crackdown on insider...

Willful and self-assured, Charles H. Keating Jr. strode through a life of outsized public roles — anti-pornography crusader, luxury hotel developer, political kingmaker — on his way to becoming one of the nation's most notorious corporate rogues.
The...

For more than a quarter of a century, investors have been able to bring class-action lawsuits against companies that have fraudulently inflated their stock prices without having to prove that each buyer of the stock had been individually duped. Now,...

Wall Street bonuses grew an estimated 15% in 2013, swelling to an average $164,530, the third-highest amount on record, the New York comptroller's office reported Wednesday.
Firms will pay out an estimated $26.7 billion in bonuses to their employees...

Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Vice President Fabrice Tourre, found liable for his part in a failed $1-billion investment, was ordered to pay more than $825,000 in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission case.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest...

The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into the way that a Canadian pharmaceutical company and activist investor Bill Ackman have tried to buy Botox maker Allergan Inc. of Irvine.
Ackman's hedge fund, Pershing Square Capital Management, said...

A San Francisco man was sentenced Thursday to three months in federal prison for profiting from insider trading when the Walt Disney Co. purchased Marvel Entertainment in a $4-billion deal.
Toby Scammell, 29, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Los...

With Citigroup Inc. agreeing to pay $7 billion for issuing toxic mortgage securities, the Justice Department now turns to settling its case against what analysts call the biggest mortgage miscreant of all: Bank of America Corp.
The government has...

Ruling on Halliburton Co.'s appeal in a securities law case, the Supreme Court on Monday made it a bit harder for investors — including just about every American with a 401(k) — to recover the share value they lost when a public company's deceptions...

For days, the northern Iraqi city of Mosul was flush with rumors of an imminent onslaught by Al Qaeda-inspired militants, prompting the mayor to appeal to "men who love death with honor" to mount a defense even as others fled.
When gunmen broke...

Last October, managers told an employee in Barclays' trading unit to keep from clients a report showing the bank routed most of their dark pool orders to itself, according to the New York attorney general.
He refused, Eric Schneiderman said, and was...

It was a slow grind, but U.S. stocks posted gains in the second quarter and first half, extending the bull run into a sixth year.
In a surprise, investors also were rewarded for sticking with bonds, as interest rates resumed their decline after surging...

The Securities and Exchange Commission is embarking on a broad plan to tackle growing concerns about the effect of high-speed computer-based trading on equity markets.SEC Chairwoman Mary Jo White outlined new rules and regulations Thursday that aim to...

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Illinois with securities fraud, accusing the state of misleading municipal investors over pension fund obligations, the regulatory agency said Monday.
An investigation determined the state failed to inform...